Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas in a blink...

dec 23 2012:
So apparently there are only two sleeps before the big jolly man that we know as Father Christmas pays a visit and leaves all the good boys and girls some magical gifts under the tree, in their stockings and Christmas sacks. How did that happen? Who said that it could be Christmas already?! I'm not sure that I approve!

Just like there is no stopping Christmas and time it seems there is no stopping the craziness that surrounds the occassion. People hurrying around in an attempt to select the most perfect gifts for that special someone or that random KK that you had to do. Trying your very hardest to select the most perfect gift. It tends to be a tricky business and eventually you begin to walk the fine line of when you feel it's ok to just throw in the towel and buy that person a voucher because you cringe at the thought of giving them something they won't like or just simply won't use!

I pretty much went and smashed out all my shopping in one session. I was pretty pleased with myself actually! Was good to get it out of the way... only four days to spare. It sure was crazy enough at the shops already though! It's funny how we manage this. It happens every year. I talk to some people who have pretty much had there shopping sorted from early November because they just can't stand the hustle and bustle of the not-so-organised of us. I'm not quite sure how they manage it but I also don't see how it could be as fun as doing it all at the last minute... Anyway. I'm done. It's done. I'm ready for Christmas now.

dec 28 2012:
It's over! It's come and gone all over again! It always seemed so depressing as a child. This one day that you spent over three hundred days waiting for it to come around just disappears in the blink of an eye and then you were back to waiting for it all over again! Now I can see why as much as I'm sure my parents enjoy Christmas there is an amount of dread as it rolls around. Being on a dairy farm means that no matter what the season, occasion or public holiday that pops up there is always work to be done and never a day can be just simply taken off. The cows still have to be milked on Christmas and at the moment that is three times a day!

So while a lot of people get the day off to spend with their families it's always another day at work for the dairy farmers (and other kinds of farmers along with other professions that can't just shut down shop such as hospitals, police and many others I'm sure). I never really got this when I was younger and couldn't quite understand why Mum was always so stressed on the day as we tried to get milking out of the way along with other jobs Dad had to be doing or something always seemed to break down or go wrong. But I get it now. And this year instead of us rushing around all day to make it to another location for festivities with family we took some stress out of the day and just celebrated with ourselves. Though it was a bit sad not to be going and odd to break a tradition, I don't remember ever not going to this family function, we do it every single year. But with our large family it makes for a lot of fun with just ourselves! Many presents were unwrapped with lots of gasps of excitement. The best reactions for the day were probably my nine-year-old sisters excitement when she pulled a Furby from her Santa sack along with the almost excitement induced heart-attack that my seven-year-old brother almost had when The Amazing Spider-Man Blu-Ray was unwrapped.

All in all a grand day was had by all as we stuffed our faces with many delicious treats and far too much food I'm sure and enjoyed the festivities of the day along with getting through the milkings and such things.

Family Snap!

Hope your day was as lovely as ours was!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

LINKspired #011



So many cool things on this addictive Fancy place!

I want the track for this mash up of 50 of the hottest top 40 songs of the year!

If you haven't already checked out my super talented little sister head on over the Hair Like a Lion's YouTube page!

This tables and chairs shelf set is crazy clever! What a fantastic compact storage solution!

I never really followed X-Factor too closely this year but 4th placed Bella Ferraro is releasing a rather impressive single. Set Me On Fire. Check it.





Monday, December 10, 2012

State of the Art!

Have just had a fantasticly awesome weekend! After a lovely road trip with one of my favourite people back from home-sweet-home to melbourne-sweet-home for the Gotye concert at Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday we enjoyed some fine dining and other city adventures before venturing to the amazing show as well as having a glorious Sunday.

On Saturday the weather was warm and it was a great day for a road trip. Once we made it to Melbourne we headed into Chinatown for some delicious dinner which involved walking into the first place that took our fancy. The lucky choice was The Crane Restaurant where we both experienced the electronic menu ordering hi-tech fandangled new system that is popping up about the place. You actually use an iPad kind of device which contains pictures for the entire menu and you simply select the items you would like and the quantity before simply pressing order. No waiter writing down on a pad standing over you as you try to make a decision and quit procrastinating and pouring over a menu! It was quite odd... there were so many staff running around and we could barely take a mouthful of water and they would be by your side with a jug ready to top you up! We selected some delicious lemon chicken, my friends standard favourite along with rice which we thoroughly enjoyed! It's been a long time since I've had lemon chicken and it was just SO good!

After this we headed down for a squiz at the Myer Christmas windows in the Bourke Street Mall. This year they are based on Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton. It was a gorgeous display! I've never heard of the book before but I shall have to go and have a look at it some time. Myer does always deliver well with this show. The scenes are just amazing! It's just so magical! Christmas just brings out so much magic!

When we arrived at the music bowl I was of course just in awe of the fantasticness of the venue. It would be so amazing to go to the carols here! And boy did Wally De Backer put on a show! Gotye was just amazing. The visuals he had player were captivating. It was crazy good and well worth the ticket. Wowee! And just the whole crew, the musicians involved and their performance. Wow. Wow. Wow. And Wally on the drums, I loved it when he got on the drums. It was so intense and he just radiated such passion and... it was so good! Will be back into my Gotye music along with Ball Park this week! One of the highlights was definitely when Barry Morgan came out with the organs for State of the Art. Thoroughly entertaining. I'd also never seen the video clip for Bronte or Thanks for your time which were both really cool along with all the others I hadn't seen. He was also supported by Bertie Blackman which was pretty good.

So not only was this all a grand lot of fun but then today we headed over to the Melbourne Zoo! I don't think I've been there since I was about nine years old! SO long ago!! It was so much fun wondering around checking out all the animals. Favourite would have to be the Giraffes. And the Zebras. We know I love these! And then the Elephants. They were just awesome to see! And the Baboons were rather funny too! Was great weather for it too. And possibly had THE BEST sausage roll ever! It was so delicious. Damn the deliciousness of pastry!

Then the rest of the day I've just spent chilling, watched Toy Story 3 while organising some Christmas presents and then watched Valentine's Day while having my very favourite Vegetarian Supreme Pizza from Crust. It's seriously the best thing ever. And now I'm winding down, with a sugar overload ahead of me watching He's just not that into you for about the 8965498754th time in my life! Yep, I really love this film!

So I hope your weekend has been as awesome as mine!

Chow ;)




Wednesday, December 5, 2012

essential

"Graphic design is essentially a language for living"

- Debbie Millman


If you were wondering just what kind of part that Graphic Design plays in your daily life and why we do need Graphic designers, give this video a watch!


Good habits...

“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.”
― John Irving

SwissMiss

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

things you don't like


“If you say that money is the most important thing, you’ll spend your life completely wasting your time: You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is, in order to go on doing things you don’t like doing — which is stupid!”
- Allan Watts

Monday, December 3, 2012

Chill out, It's nice to be alive!

Home sweet-awesome-fantastic-lovely home! After finishing up with my temp job on Friday and a busy weekend, a fantastic week of awesome things I'm extremely happy and excited to have finally made it home. It's been nearly a whole month since I've been home to the country. I've been having a grand time in Melbourne the last few weeks, much amazing food, good times. If you've seen my instagram or tumblr you'll have seen the fantastic fun I've been having! I was extreme keen to make it home today to help celebrate the baby of the family, my youngest brothers third birthday. I swear he's about five or six though. He's so intelligent! I may be biased but seriously, this kid is so clued in! So I snuck home and surprised the whole family today which has been rather exciting fun!

A few highlights of the last few weeks include...

Went to Ball Park Music last weekend. They were beyond amazing. If I wasn't already a bit of a fan I'm quite a bit more of one now! Have been listening to their albums Museum and Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs almost non-stop since seeing them at The Palace. AND supported by Loon Lake who were not only awesome but I have to say a rather attractive bunch! Epicly fun times were had! If you haven't checked these bands out do it now! First Palace experience and I'm keenly watching their line up list for someone to see there again as soon as I can!

Have been munching on many fantastic foods. That has been fantastic fun for my taste buds. Tried quail for the first time. That was just deliciousness! Along with stuffed tempered zucchini flowers. Another first which was amazingly good. So much deliciousness! Been trying out the local cafe and it's delicious focaccias. Tried some amazing butter chicken at Anshumann Da Dhaba yesterday. Having chicken parmas for dinner tonight with a home made parma sauce which I'm super proud of making and excited to consume! Gosh food is just far too good!

Went to the thousand steps yesterday with some friends which ended up being a bit of a day trip as we kind of went the wrong way before finally reaching the destination of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk. Something that has been on my list of things to do for a very long time so I can finally tick it off! Hard work and slippery stuff but good fun with the crew I went with.

Also played in my second netball grand final for the year which the team brought home an impressive victory! So that was grand fun and good times.

Finally unpacked all my twenty-first gifts that had been sitting in my room waiting to be put in some new homes for quite some time. Did a good spring clean out and have found I have almost no pants and shorts as they are all miles to big for me now! Time to go shopping I believe!! Also just actually pulled out a lot of clothes I've been holding onto with the "I might wear that or need that some time" but that I have never really actually pulled out to wear for more than 12 months. So that felt rather refreshing!

Work was also a highlight and I feel so grateful at how it all worked out and the knowledge and experience that I gained was invaluable!

And now it's December! Where did that come from?! Time to make some Christmas lists and work out what to get everyone! It's so exciting to be pretty much on holidays finally!

Just in love with being back at home at the moment!